I am very excited to announce that our April #publibchat will be all about privacy, just ahead of ALA’s Choose Privacy Week in early May. Even more exciting is that Alison Macrina (@flexlibris) of the Library Freedom Project will be moderating our chat! Alison is a librarian, internet activist, founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, and a core contributor to The Tor Project.Library Freedom Project is a partnership among librarians, technologists, attorneys, and privacy advocates which aims to address the problems of surveillance by making real the promise of intellectual freedom in libraries.

Please join in on Thursday, April 27th at at 9pm ET / 8 CT / 7 MT / 6 PT to discuss the public library’s role in privacy and how we can protect our patrons.

This is a chat not to miss! Please share widely and join us for the discussion.

I have always loved Laurie Berkner’s song Moon Moon Moon and when I recently started helping out a pajama storytime, I knew it was time to figure out the chords on my ukulele. I recorded a quick video and have posted the lyrics with chords for either guitar or ukulele below. This is posted with permission from Laurie Berkner.

YouthShare: News You Can Use

by Katelyn Patterson

Summer Reading Program Tracking Survey

Libraries that are considering using software to track their summer reading programs frequently ask what systems/vendors other libraries are using and why. We have created a short survey that will allow us to collect this information.

Only 8 questions long and estimated to take between 3-5 minutes, this survey will enable us to understand how CTLS libraries are tracking their summer reading programs, which vendors they are using for software, and why those vendors were chosen. The results will be available and will be useful to those looking to transition to software or those looking for a new vendor. Even if you are using a spreadsheet or paper, please let us know this in the survey.

Thank you!

National Robotics Week

National Robotics Week is coming up from April 8th to the 16th. Started back in 2010, NRW is a way to educate the public about robotics and encourage youth to pursue a career in robotics. For those working robotics into your programs like our Bots & Books libraries, you can register your program on the National Robotics Week website and use some of their resources. There are posters, images you can use for social media, and press releases. And there is a cute Robotics Week mascot named Bleeker! 🙂

Total Eclipse of the Sun

On August 21st, my family will be headed north so that we can view the solar eclipse in totality and we are very excited. Even though here in Texas we will only see a partial eclipse, it would still be a great way to bring your community together at the library! Here are some resources:

timeanddate.com can tell you based on your location when you can expect to see the maximum eclipse possible. For instance, the maximum we will see here in Austin will be 68% coverage at 1:10pm, though the entire event will take about 3 hours. Consider scheduling a community viewing event around your local viewing information that can be found here.

Remember it is dangerous to look directly at the sun! You can apply for some free solar viewing glasses and other resources through Star_Net’s NASA @ My Library program. The deadline to apply is May 1st so apply here today!

SRP Manual Highlight

Chapter 6 of the Teen Manual, Literary Foundation, includes activities celebrating stories: geeking out about characters, making bookish goodies, and creating stories of your own. On page 61, it lays out what you would need to get teens started doing Stop Motion Animation. This is a great way to get your teens being creative with technology because it doesn’t require much.

You need devices such as tablets or phones (yours or theirs), any number of free apps that can create the animation from photos taken, and supplies to manipulate in the photos! Those supplies can be as simple as Legos, playdough, or yarn. Have a light source like a flashlight, a flashlight app, or a desk lamp to manipulate shadows, too. The manual suggests using an app called Stop Motion Studio which is available for iOS and Android. There is a basic version available for free, but I quickly ran into something I couldn’t do with the basic version. Instead, I used an app called PicPac, only available on Android, to create this video. This 10 second video took me about 40 minutes so you see how time involved it can be. Teens can share their final production with themselves via email to show off to their friends. With their permission, show their productions on social media to entice others to come for future programs!

CSLP PSA Media Available

The Collaborative Summer Library Program has made public service announcement media pieces in both English and Spanish available here for sharing on websites, social media, or with local media. Use this valuable resource to publicize your summer reading program! Do you make your own videos? Please share them with us!

YouthLinks

Check out the Teen Science Cafe Network! A Teen Science Cafe is a program for teens to talk with scientists over refreshments. The Network provides organizations looking to start a TSC program with support and resources.

NASA’s Globe Observer Project has lots of great resources including free programming materials to celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd. North Texas libraries are represented on the participation map but nowhere else in Texas!

YouthShare: News You Can Use

by Katelyn Patterson

SRP Manual Highlight

Chapter 9 of the Teen Manual is called Beyond the Library Walls and has many good suggestions for easy projects for patrons to make and then donate to a good cause.

This immediately reminded me of the wonderful work done at the Bee Cave Public Library and their participation in “# 25000 Tuques”, the global charity project to collect hand-knitted hats for Syrian refugees arriving in Canada. Bee Cave collected hat donations and held a knit-in to see how many hats could be made at the library. Over their participation for the last two years, they have donated 896 hats! Amazing work, Bee Cave!

Starting on page 141 is a section called For the Love of Cats and Dogs. There are four different animal toys to make out of old t-shirts that could be donated to local animal shelters or city animal control. My first suggestion is to contact the shelters to ask what is needed to make sure your donation is welcomed! Next, get your teens to work on these easy projects. Use old SRP theme shirts you have, ask the community to donate shirts, or visit a thrift shop to purchase some for cheap.

I chose to make this dog rope toy from page 142. It was easy and fun to figure out. You could make them as small or large as you want. You could easily get more than one toy out of one adult t-shirt.

The Texas Museum of Science and Technology hosts a weekly STEM program for preschoolers called Wee-Searchers. I thought this name was too cute and had to share it!

Dream Big is a new film for all ages about engineering’s impact in our world and our lives. Your library can sign up to host a screening of the film in your community. See the website for more information. And you can view the trailer here.

Check out the 2016 Cybil Award Winners! The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles.

Librarian Rebecca McCorkindale recently created some images that are making the rounds on the internet. She is wonderful and encourages everyone to download and use them at their library. Libraries everywhere are making displays using her images. And they are available in languages ranging from American Sign Language to Vietnamese. Even Klingon.